Damn That Time Warner

Redskins Locker Room

So I'm sitting in my office at home watching the game via gametracker on yahoo.com. I once had direct-tv who has the nfl network in my plan, but when i moved trees in the back of my house blocked my signal so i had to switch to Time Warner. No nfl network or sunday ticket on cable.Im so screwed. I heard nfl is trying to agree with cable to have access to the network...is that true?

p.s. somebody cheer a lil louder for me

__________________ I laugh at you Colt Brennan haters. You're the same guys who didn't wanna bench Brunell for Campbell. The tables will turn.

I just signed on with Direct TV about three weeks ago and they had a great deal. I got NFL game ticket for the rest of the season for free and got all the pay channels (HBO, SHO, Cmax) for 4 months free. My monthly bill is only $79/month, about what I was paying with Dish Network. But now I get 90 HD channels soon to be 100 HD channels on 1/1/08, plus add in the free NFL Game Ticket.
I am sorry if I sound like an ad for Direct TV, but I am really happy I switched. I highly recommend it.

I have a feeling when DTV's contract is up, there's going to be a huge bidding war for Sunday Ticket. I've heard some of the cable companies are thinking about tossing down big bucks to get it. (Time Warner, FIOS, Comcast.)

The NFL needs to stop asking for such ridiculous things for NFL network. You pay us the likes of HBO, but put it on a general tier? Sorry NFL network, you're not that powerful yet.

I have a feeling when DTV's contract is up, there's going to be a huge bidding war for Sunday Ticket. I've heard some of the cable companies are thinking about tossing down big bucks to get it. (Time Warner, FIOS, Comcast.)

The NFL needs to stop asking for such ridiculous things for NFL network. You pay us the likes of HBO, but put it on a general tier? Sorry NFL network, you're not that powerful yet.

It's the cable companies that want it added to a premium tier. The NFLN wants it added to the basic package like ESPN.

From wikipedia:

NFL Network has insisted that it be placed on basic service and wish to charge the cable companies a monthly rate of $0.61 per subscriber, while Time Warner and other major cable companies wishes to place it on a sports tier. Cable companies feel that a channel with such marginal interest and few live games with filler programming would be tough to sell during non-football season months. [17] NFL Network's position is that demands are unreasonable and many other providers place NFL Network on a basic tier without subscriber backlashes

Like I've said before, if the NFL Network would start showing nothing but classic games (the whol game, nothing edited,) like they did last summer with the Super Bowls, then I'd definitely feel the NFL Network would be at a higher demand.

The guy in that article brings up several good arguments in favor of the NFL winning that battle, another argument I didn't see in there was the fact that there are a lot of people like myself who live in apartments that cannot get DirecTV all we can get is cable so we really don't have any choice in the matter. Cable tried to fight that battle with MLB and lost...I have a feeling they will lose the battle again with the NFL...

Yes Matty, exactly what I said. The NFL Network wants to charge the cable companies a pretty high price for the network, but they want it on the general tier? You can't have your cake and eat it too. My last cable company, I had to pay a whole 2 dollars a month extra for NFL network. I don't see anything wrong with that at all. Same with the cable I have now, costs 2 bucks a month more. I'm curious how much money HBO gets and how much regular networks get.

Yes Matty, exactly what I said. The NFL Network wants to charge the cable companies a pretty high price for the network, but they want it on the general tier? You can't have your cake and eat it too. My last cable company, I had to pay a whole 2 dollars a month extra for NFL network. I don't see anything wrong with that at all. Same with the cable I have now, costs 2 bucks a month more. I'm curious how much money HBO gets and how much regular networks get.

So would you rather see it added to a premium sports tier so you have to pay extra for it?

I'd rather see if on a normal tier most definitely and readily available on every cable provider. However, I don't think it's fair that the NFL is trying to force a premium price on cable providers yet want the type of accessibility that the basic type networks want.

You need to choose which one. Either have it be a pay service, or drop your price to the cable companies. Truth is the NFL doesn't really care if people have it or not, as long as the maximize profits. Which is fine, but somehow I doubt this is it. How much more could they make off of advertising if it were available everywhere.

I'd rather see if on a normal tier most definitely and readily available on every cable provider. However, I don't think it's fair that the NFL is trying to force a premium price on cable providers yet want the type of accessibility that the basic type networks want.

You need to choose which one. Either have it be a pay service, or drop your price to the cable companies. Truth is the NFL doesn't really care if people have it or not, as long as the maximize profits. Which is fine, but somehow I doubt this is it. How much more could they make off of advertising if it were available everywhere.

I hear ya but as a consumer don't you just want the lowest price? What do you care about the logistics of it?

Truth is the NFL doesn't care because they pretty much hold the networks by the balls. The networks actually lose money on the NFL but it's such a huge draw they have to suck it up and swallow the loses. In the end I think this battle is less about money and more about the giant that is the NFL not giving any ground to the cable companies. In the end the fans are the real losers as this article points out:

I switched to DTV 10 years ago when I moved from VA to NC. Originally I got it purely so I could watch the Skins games. Part of my original agreement was how much they could raise Sunday Ticket incrementally per year. So now I pay less than a new subscriber, but don't get the Red Zone, or the splitscreen of every game being played or the 30 minute games the day after. I don't have HBO or any other pay channels but I do get a lot of channels that aren't part of the local TIme Warner system (and Time Warner cost more). Up until a few years ago I did have cable and DirecTV because it was the only way to get the local channels. So I had the $5/month cable that gave me the local channels only. During the time I had both I lost cable service more than I lost DirecTV (though after a hurricane ripped apart the post that my dish was on I was without for about 5 days until someone could come out to fix it).
On a side note, several of the apartment complexes around here do have Dish or DirecTv. Sometimes individual apartments or condos get a dish but that is often against complex rules. Property managers often can play cable and dish companies against each other and get really good pricing.
Sorry this seemed to ramble a bit, but if anyone wants to switch to switch to DirecTv ask someone who has it to refer them because then both people get $50 (I think the same is true for Dish but not sure).